The Saga Of The Bright King
by Finding-Emo
Summary: Everything must come to an end, and the Bright King is the one who will end it. So naturally, Luffy is on a quest to become the Bright King. AU, no pairings, just good ol' adventure.
1. The Dreaming in the Story

Orange flames blazed as the forest burnt, the rush of heat that roiled off it swamping the night air along with the fire's roar. It bathed the ramshackle temples of the place of small gods in orange light, casting giant shadows over the young ones. The newest of the small gods shrank back in fear as their playground burnt, but the older ones knew enough not to worry, and one in particular stood far too close to the flames, watching them eagerly.

Slowly, the flames died and flickered out everywhere except right in front of the waiting god, and a god far larger than any of those gathered in front of the houses became tangible and stepped from the flames.

"Right, then," he said, waving an arm to put out the remaining embers, "which story do you kids want to hear today?"

The small gods rushed him, each shouting their suggestion as loud as they could while tackle-hugging what parts of the fire god they could reach. The god who had waited for him jumped above his siblings and threw stretched arms around his shoulders, yelling incoherently. The fire god stumbled under the combined weight of the small ones and set about peeling them off his legs and stomach.

"Hey, now!" He shook another couple of small gods off his right leg and gave them a mock-indignant glare. "If you're going to be like that, I think I'll pick the story myself!"

The rubber spirit whined, "Awww, Aaaaace…"

Ignoring him, the fire spirit grinned and said, "Okay, I've decided! I'll tell you about the Bright King and the end of everything."

The small gods all suddenly perked up. A new story was nothing to be sniffed at, and this Bright King was definitely nothing they'd ever heard about before. The fire god sat on the well-charred stump he always sat on, and the small ones gathered around his feet.

Ace, for that was the name he took among his brothers, took a deep breath and began to speak.

"_Look around you. Everything you see, the hills, the forest-"_ he pointed off into the distance, _"-the mortal world-"_ he pointed skyward, _"-the heavens-"_ he pointed downwards and lowered his voice, _"-even the underworld and the land of beasts, all that _is_ and exists must be destroyed. Not merely razed and defiled, _destroyed_. The lands, the seas, the skies, even the void, will be taken and made to not exist. It's a task that will take a hundred days and a hundred nights, and not a hundred of just anyone's days and nights; a hundred of the Bright King's days and nights._

_The Bright King is the great destroyer, the god or spirit or possibly even mortal – I doubt it, though – who will take everything and make it into nothing. He cannot be stopped, and he cannot be made of one who lacks his will. His iron will is what he has that shall give him the strength to travel the worlds and find his warriors, what shall give him the strength to stand up to Universe Man, who holds the universe on his great shoulders, what shall give him the strength to make nothing from everything._

_His time is coming._

_Nobody knows who he is yet. He could be me, or you, or any god or spirit, maybe even one who is not yet born. But when he finds who he is and comes for his throne, he will shout his name to the god lands and the heavens and the underworld, and he will bring the world to its knees._

_That's all that can be seen now."_

Silence, save for the soft whistle of the wind, reigned over the small gods and their world. Even the rowdiest little ones were quiet, comprehension failing in the face of the idea of sheer destruction and the possibility that the harbinger of it sat among them now.

Luffy the rubber god was first to break the silence.

"That," he said quietly, "is so cool."

Immediately, chatter broke out among the gods. Arguing amongst the ones who agreed and those who were terrified out of their minds was the first thing to happen, with crying from those most scared a close second. Ace took advantage of the confusion to stand up and compose himself.

"Okay, okay, okay," he said. "Time for you kids to sleep, okay?"

There was whining from the mob of small gods, of course, but not nearly as much as usual. "C'mon, go," muttered the fire god as he hustled the young ones towards their temples. Most went to bed without a fuss, and even the mechanical god of magnetism made much less of a bother than usual. Once every young one was tucked safely in bed, Ace returned to the embers of the forest to go home…

…but he sensed a small presence behind him, and he turned to face the god who had followed him. It was Luffy, standing there in his sleep shirt, small fists clenched in determination. He took a deep breath and said, "Ace."

Ace cocked his head to one side. "Yeah, Luffy?"

Luffy declared with a slight tremble in his voice, "I'm gonna be the Bright King, Ace."

Ace looked him up and down, then kneeled and pulled the small god into a tight hug. Pulling the strings from his boots and weaving them into a band, with some of the shiny stones that littered the ground in the place of the small gods, he said quietly, "Okay."

He tied the band around Luffy's head, with the brightest of the nine stones resting in the center of his forehead. "There. Every king needs a crown, and now you have one."

Ace let go of his brother, patted him on the head and said, "Come tell me when you're king, okay?"

Luffy puffed up his chest and nodded stoically. Ace tilted his hat in recognition, burst into flame and disappeared from the place of small gods.

Small hands clasped firmly to his loose 'crown', Luffy lay down in the grass, dug a few stones that stuck into his back out of the dirt, and went to sleep.

And when the morning sun's rays shone into the shoddy temples, the small gods gathered around Luffy in awe because, as he slept, the small god had stopped being small and become a proper god.

* * *

Prologue, yay! ;) So, uh… yeah. Every ending needs a beginning, don'tcha know. Spot the cameo.

Oh, and just so you know, I'm trying to make this story as short as possible, 'coz frankly, I hate it when I find an awesome story but it's so fucking long that I completely lose interest by the third chapter. I don't want to slog through twenty damn pages of setup and setup alone.


	2. The Warrior in the Graveyard

As the morning sun passed and gave way to bright noon, Luffy dragged the only non-leaky boat in the place of the small gods down to the beach. A few of the small gods, who now mostly only reached his knees, followed him as he pulled along his new ship, which was happily large enough for him to inhabit comfortably. The small gods peppered him with questions as he went:

"Where are you going?"

"What's that thing on your head?"

"How come you know you're gonna be the Bright King?"

Luffy chuckled happily and answered, "I'm going to sail around all the lands to find my Bright Warriors! They're pretty important for the end, you know. This-" he pointed to the band with stones that now encircled his head perfectly without drooping or falling, "-is my crown, 'coz every king needs a crown, and I know I'm gonna be the Bright King 'coz I just do! You know?"

"Uh-huh!"

They reached the beach and Luffy gently pushed the caravel into the water before springing on board with his things. "Bye, guys!" he called, waving to the small gods on the beach, before grabbing the oars and rowing for the horizon.

* * *

The day passed, as it does, and eventually Luffy spotted land in the distance as the sun set. He redoubled his efforts, and he made landfall just before darkness fell. Never one for sitting around, Luffy jumped ashore and began to explore this strange new land.

It was a lot greener than the place of small gods, with grass growing long and a great many trees scattered around. Someone had cut a path through the trees not too long ago, and Luffy followed it to a small town. Small in human terms, anyway; it was still far bigger than the gathering of dwellings in the place of small gods, and Luffy found himself staring in awe of the buildings that lined the streets.

It was far quieter than the place of small gods, though. There wasn't a single person in the street or on the steps of the houses, and there weren't any lights shining through the windows either. Actually, a lot of the houses had their windows smashed, and more than one was a bit lacking in front doors…

It was altogether rather creepy, and Luffy raced through the empty streets in search of people, but his search was in vain. He didn't see or hear a single soul, and he became more frantic with every house passed and every corner rounded, and before long his thoughts turned from finding people to getting out of this place as soon as he could.

At long last he burst from the claustrophobic streets and into the town's graveyard. It was still silent, but Luffy could handle that; graveyards were meant to be quiet. Not towns.

He surveyed the graves quietly, and frowned. Now he was looking, a great deal of the graves seemed pretty fresh…

"Come to gloat, you fucking bastard?"

The words cracked the night air like a whip, filled with hatred and despair. Luffy turned, and had to duck very quickly to avoid getting his head sliced off. "Agh!" he yelled and bounded out of the swordsman's reach, and stretched and punched, hitting the man on the chin with enough force to knock him off his feet. He felt a stinging in his fingers, and to his surprise found that the backs of his fingers were lined with a shallow cut. The swordsman turned out to have three swords, and he removed the white-hilted one from his mouth to spit blood onto the ground.

"Since when do you motherfucking fish monsters stretch? You make a deal with the devil or something?"

"What?" Luffy asked in confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a rubber god, not a fish god."

The swordsman picked up a lantern from the cemetery fence and shone the light on Luffy. He looked him over and raised a green eyebrow. "I don't know about god, but I suppose that would explain the size and stretching. Sorry I mistook you for one of those fish guys. They like to gloat."

Adjusting his crown, Luffy said, "It's okay, you can't kill me anyway. You talking about fish-men? Aren't they supposed to stay in the land of beasts?" He remembered his manners and added, "Oh yeah, my name's Luffy."

The swordsman took a deep breath and said, "Okay, Luffy. I'm Roronoa Zoro. I don't know about any beast lands or anything, I'm no scholar, I just know that these fishy fuckers came here maybe a week, two weeks ago while I was out hunting. I was too late. Everyone was dead when I got back. Except Kuina." He took another deep breath and brushed a few tears from his cheeks. "She gave me her sword, and she told me to live. So that's what I've been doing."

Luffy was speechless. "Oh," was all he could say.

"It's not enough, though," admitted Zoro. "I… need revenge. I don't think I can live with myself as long as they're alive. I'm not strong enough to kill them yet, all I can do is defend myself and live. It's just not enough."

He sat on the grass in front of one of the graves. "And now you know. You better go back to your village before they show up again."

"Hey, no way!" Luffy scrambled over to him and knelt down. "I'll help you kill them, I mean, I'm strong, I can definitely take them-"

Zoro held up a hand and cut him off. He took a pull of something from a flask on his belt and said, "This is my battle, Luffy. If I don't do it myself, I might as well not do it at all."

Silence.

After a bit of thought, Luffy said, "Will you at least let me draw out your inner strength, so you _can_ do it yourself? It's not really cheating, right?"

Zoro gave him a sidelong glance. "You can do that?"

Luffy nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, 'course!"

"Okay, then."

The swordsman turned to face Luffy, who put both hands on his shoulders and concentrated hard. Eyes closed, he started to chant softly in a language Zoro didn't know- _"Auoba tika uala, auoba tika uoh," _-and as he chanted those strange words, Zoro felt a huge power welling up inside him. His swords responded too, shaking in their sheaths, and his heart started to beat faster as the feeling of being undeniably, irrevocably _strong_ flowed through every inch of his body. He felt it from his fingertips to the soles of his feet, and as Luffy finished his chant with a shout of _"Uoh!"_, Zoro felt as though he and his swords were one single entity with strength enough to shatter the land itself.

Luffy blew a few strands of his black hair out of his eyes and asked, "Ready?"

Zoro took the black bandanna he wore in mourning from his upper arm, tied it on over his head and said, "_Yes_."

The rubber god grinned and pointed back into town. "That way."

He didn't need to be told twice. He turned and ran into town, a demonic roar of vengeance bursting from his throat as he went.

* * *

The swordsman gone, Luffy ambled out of the cemetery, climbed up the wall of someone's house and onto their roof. He bounded from rooftop to rooftop until he reached the roof of the church and looked down along the main street, waiting for Zoro to find the fish-men.

It took a while longer than Luffy had expected, but eventually Zoro rounded a corner into the main street, just a few blocks down from the fountain, where the fish-men were. They saw him, and all grinned savagely.

"Hey, pussy! Not had enough of a beating yet?" yelled one with gray skin.

He barely had enough time to laugh at his own joke before Zoro sliced him in half.

The remaining three went for their weapons. The next closest to Zoro wasn't fast enough to draw his before Zoro swiveled and cut three deep slashes into him, his enraged howl almost drowning out the fallen fish-man's cry of pain as he fell to his knees. He turned and slashed at the biggest, but the octopus fish-man blocked Zoro's three swords with his own six before slashing wildly, desperately at Zoro. The swordsman ducked, weaved and blocked the octopus fish-man's strikes, found an opening and struck, thrusting one of his swords deep into his stomach and slashing another against his chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The last, a shark man, bared his teeth and hissed like a wild animal. He rushed Zoro mindlessly, eyes glinting madly as he slammed the swordsman to the ground with his shoulder. He didn't allow him to rise, straddling him and punching him repeatedly in the face, not even registering the pain in his right hand when it struck the edge of the sword that Zoro held between his teeth. Summoning up his newfound strength, Zoro raised his arms and thrust both swords straight through the shark man's body, striking for his vitals.

The shark man was so far gone that he struck Zoro three more times before he realized he was dying. Even then, the berserk rage that gripped him still drove him to bite at Zoro's shoulder as his life slipped away, and he died with his teeth buried deep in the muscle of it.

Zoro gritted his teeth, seized each jaw and forced them apart. That done, he shoved the shark man's corpse off of him, pulled his swords out of him and set about cleaning them, before tending to his wounds. Luffy jumped down from the church and walked over to him as he did this, sitting next to him on the dusty street. Zoro finished cleaning out his shoulder wound with water from the fountain, then got up, went into someone's house and came out a few minutes later with his shoulder bandaged somewhat sloppily. Luffy waited patiently as he returned, all three swords sheathed.

After a while, Zoro looked at Luffy and said, "Is there a reason why you're hanging around?"

Luffy nodded. "Yep! You know about the Bright King and the end of everything, right?"

He got an exasperated look for that. "Who doesn't?"

Shrugging, Luffy replied, "I don't know. Anyway, I'm gonna be the Bright King, and I'm sailing around looking for my warriors who'll help me with the end. Say, you wanna join me?"

Zoro considered for a moment. There was no point to staying in town anymore, and he was in need of something to do…

"Okay."

* * *

And he said, "Come be my warrior!"

And I said, "Okay."

AND WE PLAYED THE FIRST SONG THAT CAME TO OUR HEADS AND IT JUST SO HAPPENED TO BE

IT WAS THE SONG THAT WOULD END THE WORLD

IT WAS THE SONG THAT WOULD END THE WORLD~~

(shot for totally stupid and unnecessary Tenacious D reference)

Yeah, sorry about that. By the way, other than Zoro just now, I'm going to have the Bright Warriors (coughStrawHatscough) come together out of order, coz in order is all fine and good, but everyone does it so much that it makes stories that do it that much more boring and predictable. "Yay, Zoro's joined, I wonder who- ohwait look there's Nami, cool beans, and Usopp, awesome, and… oh Sanji next, what a frickin' surprise. Not." That's not something I want happening here. I like a bit of unpredictability in my fiction.

And yes, I know the Fish-Men were in Nami's character arc, but I'm giving them to Zoro in the interests of brevity. If it makes you feel any better, Nami gets my second favourite bad guy in her chapter…

Not really happy with Arlong vs. Zoro, but I figured if Zoro had trouble against Arlong, he'd probably be completely boned against the next enemy. I mean, this is all happening pretty quick, and Arlong has nothing on the Grand Line baddies (except Wapol, but he's a wanker so who cares?).

Well, till next time.


	3. The Cook in the Void

A week and a half after leaving Zoro's town, the ship sailed through the waves, all sails raised. Luffy was at the wheel; he may not have been terribly good at navigation, but it had become apparent that Zoro was even worse when he'd sailed them away from his town, in a neat circle and straight back to where they'd departed.

They'd visited more islands of the mortal world since they'd banded together, but all they'd seen was war, disease and worse. It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd at least found another person worthy of being a Bright Warrior, as Luffy called them. Sadly, they had had no luck, and so they sailed further afield.

Zoro, who was sitting on the deck, sighed with boredom. They hadn't spotted land for four days, and their food supplies were starting to run low. Luffy had asked if they might be nearing the edge of the mortal world, but Zoro had told him that was stupid, the mortal world wasn't that small. In any case, he'd been steering them in the nights, so they ought to be safe.

Zoro picked up his bottle of grog and was about to take a deep swig when he heard Luffy yell, "Holy shit!"

He frowned, got up and ran to his king. He called out "What is…" but trailed off, because not more than ten metres in front of the ship was the edge of the mortal world. It wasn't a waterfall, like the legends said; it was more just… an edge, where the sea just stopped. There was nothing beyond it, just empty darkness, as if someone had meant to put something there but forgotten. There was something about the empty void that struck fear into his heart more than anything he had ever seen before. Panic rising in him, he yelled, "Turn, damn it, turn!"

"Way ahead of you!" yelled Luffy, and Zoro noticed that the ship, was, indeed, turning. He felt a little better, until he noticed that the other end of the ship was about to go over the edge between sea and void. Heart beating double time, he stared at the inexorable turn of the ship, sure that it would tip and fall into the void, passengers and all…

…the back of the ship went into the void…

…and nothing happened.

Still afraid, but also rather bewildered, he said to Luffy, "Do you have any idea of what that is?"

Luffy nodded, his tongue stuck out with the concentration of turning the ship. "Yeah, it's the void. It just goes on forever. You can go in it, but you won't fall. It's just like walking on ground or swimming in water, only not, because you don't get wet. It's where the sun goes at night, see?" He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder.

Zoro looked, and indeed the sun was right over the line between sea and void. He breathed in, then out, to calm himself and said coolly, "Creepy, huh."

"Kinda, yeah."

He heard a noise from the direction of the void, and froze. He slowly turned back to the void, thankful for his lack of imagination, and saw a man, swimming through the darkness of the void. "Oh, shit," he muttered, wondering what to do.

Luffy wandered over to him, asking, "Whatcha looking at?"

Zoro pointed, and Luffy made a surprised noise. "Huh! That's weird. Is he coming towards us? Yeah, he is."

As the swimmer got closer, Zoro heard him shouting, "Hey! Help!" The surface of the void was rippling, like water might, but it wasn't splashing or moving other than that. The swimmer crossed the line between void and sea, and kept going until he was nearly up against the side of the ship. Luffy went off to the other side of the deck, and returned with a rope, one end of which he threw down to the man. Zoro didn't want this man coming aboard, for some reason he couldn't explain, but at the same time he thought Luffy shouldn't do all the work, so he helped Luffy haul the blonde stranger up onto the deck.

Once on board, he flopped exhaustedly onto his back. Luffy went back to the wheel, to make sure they didn't accidentally end up in the void, and Zoro sat beside the drenched stranger, glaring suspiciously at him. After a few minutes, he got bored, so he jabbed the stranger in the side with his sword hilt. "All right, who are you and what happened to you?"

The stranger glared back at him and said, "I'm Sanji. I _was_ in the heavens, but Eneru the lightning god kicked me into the void, okay?"

"Why'd he do that?" called Luffy from the wheel.

"He went crazy and started killing everyone, and he took the wind singer and made her marry him. I tried to rescue her, but…"

"So you're a god then? Cool, me too," said Luffy, "which god are you?"

"Well… I'm not," admitted Sanji, "I'm human, but the wind singer let me go to heaven so I could cook for her."

"Oh, you're a cook?" asked Luffy, suddenly sounding a lot happier. "Good! You want to travel with me and Zoro?"

Zoro snapped, "Hell no he doesn't!"

Sanji gave him a dirty look and said, "I'm not fussed on this guy, but if you rescue the wind singer, yeah, I'll be your cook."

"Yeah, well, we have better things to do with our time," said Zoro, at the same time as Luffy said cheerfully, "Hey, sure!"

Zoro looked at him incredulously as he turned around. "Well, c'mon, I can't cook, and you'd rather train, right?" asked Luffy.

The swordsman slumped. "If he tries anything, I'll kick him off this boat myself," he growled, slamming the door as he retreated below decks.

* * *

That evening, when they were safely moored some distance away from the edge of the sea and Sanji had made dinner, Zoro made his way up to the deck to train. As he did his stretches, warming up, Luffy walked up to him and sat down a short distance away. Zoro kept stretching, but focused some of his attention on Luffy anyway, in case he had something important to say.

Idly picking his nose, Luffy nodded to the plate of food the cook had given to Zoro and asked, "You gonna eat that?"

Zoro grunted. "Hell no."

"Okay then."

The swordsman finished stretching and moved on to practice slashes as the would-be king devoured his food in near silence. After perhaps ten minutes, Luffy speared a sausage with his fork, waved it at Zoro and said, "Hey, we're going to the heavens tomorrow."

Zoro took his third sword out of his mouth so he could speak. "Like that shitty cook wants, you mean."

Luffy shrugged. "I guess, yeah, but I was more thinking about dealing to Eneru. And maybe getting the wind singer on our side, 'coz she's wicked powerful, but yeah."

"There you go again, talking about stuff I know nothing about," growled Zoro. "You ever think about giving me an explanation?"

"Mfghgyre-" Luffy swallowed and continued, "I thought you already knew this stuff, but I guess not. Eneru's the lightning god, you know? You probably know him, he's got a lot of names."

The swordsman nodded. "Yeah, Raiden. Go on?"

"Well, my brother Ace reckons he wants to be the Bright King himself, so I'm gonna have to beat him up, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that," replied Zoro. "What about this wind singer then?"

"Aha!" cried Sanji, sauntering through the open door, "the lovely wind singer! She is cunning, amazingly beautiful-" he smirked at Zoro- "far more intelligent than _you_, and best of all she has the power to manipulate all the winds of the world! She does it oh so wonderfully too, the way her hair flutters in her breezes, how the winds blow her skirts up-"

Luffy, perhaps recognizing something of the reverence he himself reserved for food in Sanji's voice, eagerly asked, "Does she taste good?"

The cook fell to the deck with a faint thud.

Zoro prodded his prone form with the hilt of his sword and grinned. "I don't know about this wind singer, but maybe we could boil this guy into a soup and see how he tastes…"

Luffy frowned and said sternly, "Hey, he's gonna be one of my Bright Warriors too."

Zoro sighed. "True. And I suppose we don't know where he's been."

The rubber god picked up Sanji's left leg and began dragging him below decks. As he went, he called out to Zoro, "Hey, I told you we're going to the heavens tomorrow, right?"

Zoro just grunted and went back to practicing his katas.

* * *

Whee, Sanji~

I like writing for Sanji, he's a lot more fun than Zoro. Luffy is okay to write, I guess, but there always has to be someone else to bounce his sheer ditziness off, and I'm afraid Zoro's not very bouncy…

Couldn't not have Sanji fawning over Nami's hotness. Luffy's line about how she tastes comes courtesy of Kem, but everything else is all mine. She wanted me to have Sanji get a nosebleed, but, like, really, this is a serious story darnit. And quite aside from anything else, putting visual metaphors into writing just doesn't work. Every time I read about someone getting a nosebleed in fanfics, I don't lol, I wince. And making your readers wince instead of laugh is probably not something anyone wants.


End file.
